Smiling Faces - The Undisputed Truth

Monday, October 24, 2011

I am trying to limit my posts on the
Paul Bergrin trial to the end of week notes with points for the
prevailing party, but every time I look at the news on the case a
different thought comes to mind. This one concerns Bergrin's fellow
attorneys – a reference to every attorney in this country. Paul
Bergrin is a strong defender and a champion attorney that gave anyone
he defended a zealous legal defense. Many could learn from him.

I would love to watch this trial and
would be there if not for personal issues. I have always been an
attorney watcher and Paul Bergrin in a courtroom would be downright
exciting to me. He has a commanding presence and when he speaks,
everyone is listening and all eyes are focused on him and nothing else.

Consider the idiom: If you lie down
with dogs, you get up with fleas.

What criminal defense attorney does
not, at one point or another, associate with criminals? Paul made the
mistake of falling for jezebel, but does he deserve life in prison
for it? I read the testimony quoted by the reporters from news covering the trial (excellent coverage by the way) and
realize the case for exactly what it is: Criminal defendants and
informants willing to say or do anything, including throw their own
defender under a bus, to knock time off their sentences.

If you practice criminal defense then
you've met at least one just like the members of this group and
probably many. Be outraged that a fellow attorney has been indicted
and is on trial on the word of these losers!

Thus far the list of government
witnesses includes an FBI agent that should be held liable for an
informant's death, at least in part, and a bunch of convicted drug
traffickers seeking time off for cooperation with the government. How
many more drug traffickers will the feds call to the stand? Does it
matter? One is no different than the other, so whether 1 or 20
testify, it should result in the same verdict: not guilty on all
counts.

In respect to the government witnesses,
this trial reminds me of the Nino Lyons trial in Orlando federal
court back in 2001. In the Lyons case, federal prosecutors had a
parade of criminal “witnesses,” though each resided in prison at
the time of testimony – 31 convicted felons in prison testified
against Nino Lyons to get time off their own sentences . Somehow the
jury bought it, hook, line, and sinker, but the convictions were
overturned by U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell and he was
eventually exonerated completely in the case. Interested in the Nino
Lyons fiasco? Read about the USA Today investigation: